Week 4
Images and Sounds: Latest Trends
"Already
we Viewers, when not viewing, have begun to whisper to one another that
the more we elaborate our means of communication,
the less we communicate."
(J.B. Priestley)
Recommended Readings
Pre-reading for Vance's and Teresa's Chat
Pre-visiting for Michael Coghlan's chat
Adelaide, Education and Life
FINDING YOUR VOICE ONLINE - An Inquiry into the Use of Online Voice Applications in Higher Education
- Mobile Blogging at BlogWalk in Umea
- Flickr: The Land of 10,000 Memes
- Videoblogs as "Collective Documentary" (pdf file)
As you may have heard, podcasting is the latest craze on the internet. Explore the articles below to find out more about it.
Individual TasksIn order to enrich the context and quality of our webpublishing, we will now familiarize ourselves with various software applications that support working with images and sound.
Step 1 - Finding examples
In addition to text based blogs, there are other forms of blogs using alternate media.
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Photoblogs - blogs whose main content features photography.
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Audblogs - blogs in which the blogger creates audio conten or makes music files available for download.
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Moblogs - blogs whose content is posted from a portable device, usually a cell phone or PDA.
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Videoblogs - blogs whose main content features video, often with additional text.
Task #1:
- Explore the internet and find at least three examples of each kind of weblog. Furl them.
- Make a post on your personal blog on how you could use them with your students.
Step 2 - Examining Other Applications
Outside of these four blog types, there also exist separate applications that make use of images and sound.
Photo Sharing and Storage:
- Flickr
- Photobucket
- Zorpia
- Fotki
Task #2
Do you know of any other free, online photo sharing and/or storage services? How do they compare with the ones listed above? Please add them to the course wiki.Step 3 : Posting Image Files to Your Blog
Now it's time to demonstrate your ability to post images and sound to your blog:Task #3
Discover how to post a photo to your blog using Flickr. - Open an account with Flickr.
- Upload a photo to your Flickr account. Make sure the photo's status is set to 'public'.
- Click on the photo to enlarge. In the column to the left of the enlarged photo, click 'all sizes'.
- Choose the size you wish to place on your blog.
- Copy the HTML code listed in #2 and paste it into your Blogger posting window.
- Publish your Blogger post containing the HTML code from Flickr.
Step 4: Posting Sound Files to Your Blog
Task #4:
- Practice
posting a sound file to your blog. You may want to use one of the following
applications.
- Audblog: http://www.audblog.com/
- Handy Bits: http://www.handybits.com/default.htm
- Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Collective Tasks
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Group 1 (Collective Blog)
Examine the moblog "Southern California Wild Fires" and say how you could use such device/or the page in an ESL/EFL class.
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Group 2 (Wiki)
Pool and list all the questions/answers that have popped up in YG, grouping them together according to subject in the FAQ section.
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Group 3 (Personal Blog and Collective Blog)
Blog Teresa's and Vance's chat live on your personal blog and discuss in the collective blog if their main purpose for using photos and audio can also be applied to your situation. -
Group 4 (Wiki)
Develop a resource for others on our course wiki by pooling the examples of photoblogs, audblogs, moblogs and videoblogs from the individual Furls (step 1 individual task 1). Also list the various suggestions posted on the individual blogs (use your aggregators).
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Group 5 (Collective Blog)
Discuss the picture and quotation above in the light of what you have worked and the chats you participate in this week.
